Mississippi State men’s basketball hosts Vanderbilt

STARKVILLE, Miss. — The Mississippi State men’s basketball team welcomes Vanderbilt to Humphrey Coliseum Saturday for a noon CT tipoff on SEC Network.

The Bulldogs (16-12, 7-8 SEC) are coming off a 66-56 loss at South Carolina on Wednesday. MSU missed all 14 of its 3-pointers and shot just 35.8% for the game. Redshirt junior forward Tolu Smith led the team with 21 points, while junior guard Iverson Molinar added 11. Five of Molinar’s 11 points came from the free-throw line.

Molinar leads the team with 18.0 points a game. He is 12 points away from becoming the 28th player in MSU history to reach 1,200 career points. Smith is averaging 12.4 points and 5.7 rebounds a game, while graduate forward Garrison Brooks is third on the team in scoring as he is putting up 11.0 points a game to go with a team-high 6.9 rebounds.

The Commodores (14-13, 6-9 SEC) are coming off a two-point home loss to No. 24 Alabama on Tuesday. They came all the way back from an 11-point deficit and had a shot to tie the game on the final possession before falling 74-72.

Junior guard Scotty Pippen Jr. leads Vanderbilt with 19.7 points per game to go with 4.1 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 2.0 steals. He has scored 20-plus points in four consecutive games. Junior forward Jordan Wright is second on the team with 11.9 points to go with 6.1 rebounds.

Saturday’s game marks the 133rd meeting between MSU and Vanderbilt on the hardwood. The Commodores lead the all-time series 80-52, but the Bulldogs have won three of the last four meetings.